Freeview Video: Check out our highlights package, right, from the day that Phil Eastwood scored for Burnley against PNE... but ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 Deepdale defeat.
There has been a spy in the camp over the past few weeks... but nobody yet knows whether PNE or Bamber Bridge will be the ones to benefit.
North End's technical development officer Phil Eastwood will have divided loyalties on Tuesday night as he turns out for his new playing side, Bamber Bridge, where he will be hoping to pick any weaknesses he can find in the Preston defenders, but there will be one or two players in the side who know all about his game too.
That's because Eastwood has been pulling on his boots and been put through his paces alongside the youth team squad as they go through the rigours of pre-season - meaning that the Lilywhites have also had a close look at their opponent for the night.
"It's been very useful in the last few weeks because I've been able to get involved with a few of the sessions with the youth team during the day and then I train Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with Brig," explained the 31-year-old forward, who has just switched to Brig from division rivals Rossendale United.
"I'm certainly not full-time by any stretch, but certainly that extra bit of training I've been able to get in has been very helpful, and hopefully will serve me in good stead come the end of pre-season.
"It's just great to be able to get involved with the youth team at PNE and then mix that in with playing with what seems to be a really good set of lads at Bamber Bridge.
"It would have been nice to have gone head-to-head with more of the lads but most of them have gone to Northern Ireland on the youth team tour - only one or two of them have stayed due to the numbers needed to put two first teams out [scholars George Miller and Jamie Proctor will be in the PNE squad at the QED Stadium].
"They're all young and enthusiastic and there are some very good players in the set-up, but we've got a big enough challenge as it is."
Brig are no mean side - pushing hard for promotion from the UniBond League First Division North last season before fading late on - but Eastwood was quick to play up the difficulty of the encounter given the seven tier difference between the two sides, admitting:
"It's going to be a tough game - they're better than us and they're fitter than us, so they'll make it a very hard game. They've got so much quality, and having just come back from Austria, they'll be flying.
"Then there's poor us. We've just had a couple of days on the sands at Lytham - I don't know if it'll match up to three sessions a day like PNE, but we'll give it a good go!
"I'll probably even have people from work booing me in the stands," he jokes, looking across at Deepdale colleagues taking a keen interest in why he's suddenly become centre of attention in the office.
The man who once scored at Deepdale against PNE - a header at the Town End for Burnley in November 1998 that you can see above - has another chance to add to his tally on Tuesday night, and he will be expecting plenty of competition from team mates wanting to get on the scoresheet and show returning manager Tony Greenwood that they all deserve to be a part of his new-look side. The Blackburn-born ex-Claret admitted:
"Everyone wants to play against the top sides, but it's what it is, pre season - there will be a decent crowd on, our lads will want to show what they can do, and PNE won't relish coming down to play us.
"Overall, it should still be pretty comfortable for them, but we'll be going out there to try and make it hard work for them.
"There's a bunch of lads at Brig wanting to impress because the manager has just come in and is putting together a new team who will want to show what they can do in the first home game of the new season.
"The lads that Tony Greenwood has brought in are all experienced lads who are good players at non-league level. I'm looking forward to this season because we've got a good chance of being there or thereabouts."
Brig's preparations for the new season got underway at the same time as North End were hammering 11 past hapless Hallein, with a scoreless draw at West Lancashire League side Thornton Cleveleys on Saturday afternoon their solitary work out before the biggest test of pre season. He added:
"We took a mixed squad up there and pretty much everyone played half a game - it was a decent first game for everyone to blow the cobwebs off. There certainly can't be any cobwebs on Tuesday - if there are, we'll get battered!
"This will probably biggest crowd that we get all season and we'll be hoping to thrive on it."
Driving to the QED Stadium for the big game? Check out the parking information here.
